Wolverine's Ghost
by Rise-Of-The-Aquarius
Summary: SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT WORLD, NOT QUITE AU. The first time Logan met Rowanne, she was a malnourished fourteen year old girl. The second time he met her, she was a much healthier sixteen year old girl. Three more years have passed since then and now he doesn't know what to do with the strange emotions she's stirring in him and it's the same for her. M for sex.
1. Chapter 1: First and Second Meeting

Xavier looked out the window of his study and frowned. There was someone pacing outside the school and had been for quite some time. He wouldn't have minded a possible student's indecision, but he couldn't hear her inner voice and that worried him. Finally, after what seemed like forever, she walked in the gates and to the door. After just a few minutes she was being led into the study by Storm.

"Professor, do you have time?" Storm asked.

"Of course." Xavier nodded. "I always have time for those who need my help. What can I do for you?"

The girl pushed her hood off, revealing a tumbling mass of pure white hair. Her skin was pale and her eyes were gray. The only true place of color on her face was her lips which were pale pink. She was skinny and looked malnourished. She was maybe fourteen. "My name is Rowanne. My parents abandoned me last year when my mutant powers showed themselves. Since then, I've been hitchhiking my way to you. I call myself Ghost because of my powers."

"And what are your powers?" Xavier asked.

"I can become invisible, teleport, become insubstantial so that no one can touch me, even though I can touch them when I'm that way, and I am immune to telepathy." she told him.

"Well, welcome to the school." Xavier smiled. "I'll have someone show you around and you'll start school tomorrow. We'll teach you how to control your abilities here."

"Thank you." Rowanne smiled as Logan came in, looking annoyed, as usual.

"You wanted me?" he frowned.

Xavier nodded. "This is Ghost, our newest student. Will you show her around the school and find her an empty room she can use?"

Logan glanced at the small girl. "Sure."

"Thank you." Rowanne smiled, looking a little shy. Xavier waited for them to leave before getting ready for his next class.

XxXxX

Logan led Ghost around the house, telling her which room was which and the rules for the school. She was quiet and he guessed she was about ten, but didn't ask. He led her to an empty room and watched her look around. There wasn't anything in the room other than a bed and a dresser and she still looked amazed.

"It's been awhile since I had a room in a house." Ghost smiled, looking more excited for an empty room than anyone else he'd ever seen. It stirred something in his heart and he felt a soft spot for her form.

"Had a rough time?" Logan asked.

"You have no idea." Ghost shrugged.

Logan nodded. "So, why do they call you Ghost?"

Ghost smiled. "Partially because of how pale I am and partially because of my powers. I can teleport, become invisible, become insubstantial, and am immune to telepathy. I named myself, but everyone goes with it because of the same reasons."

"What do you mean by insubstantial?" Logan asked.

Ghost's form became translucent and she floated a bit above the floor like a ghost. Logan tried to touch her, but his hand went through her icy-cold form, but when she reached out and touched him, her hand didn't go through him and was slightly warmer. "See? I can become like a ghost." her form solidified again.

"Can what you touch become the same way?" Logan asked.

"Only objects. I can't do the same to people. Their form would become to unstable on a molecular level." Ghost explained.

Logan nodded. "Either way, that's a pretty impressive gift."

Ghost smiled. "Thanks. Not a lot of people think so."

"A lot of people are afraid of what they don't understand, even parents." Logan told her, seeing the pain in her eyes. "You'll do great here."

Ghost's eyes filled with tears. "Thank you. It's great to know there are people like you around."

"You're a good kid. It's time people noticed." Logan grinned and left.

XxXxX

**Two Years Later**

Ghost ran downstairs when she heard someone pull up to the driveway. It was late in the evening and she was surprised to see that it was Logan. Her heart skipped a beat and she wondered at the oddity. When Logan opened the door, she was a little surprised to see that he looked the exact same as he did two years earlier when she'd first arrived at the school.

"Hey." he nodded at both of them. "You're up late. It's past ten."

"I heard you pull up." Ghost told him.

Logan looked her up and down. "You look better than the last time I saw you, but you still have bags under your eyes. You should be in bed."

"I don't sleep very well and I've been waiting for you since Storm said you were on your way back to the mansion." Ghost shrugged.

Logan grinned. "You should eat more. You're still too skinny."

"I have a fast metabolism so that I can teleport and become insubstantial." Ghost shrugged. "It's good to see you. Where've you been?"

Logan chuckled. "Haven't you been the one sending me letters?"

"The professor sent them out for me. He knew where you were." Ghost told him. She didn't tell him that from the few times he'd actually written back, she'd developed a bit of a crush on him. It was embarrassing to her, considering how much older he was than her, but it had happened.

"I've just been around." Logan shrugged.

"You were gone for two years." Ghost stated. "Are you staying long?"

"Not at all, kid. I'm leaving in just a couple of days." Logan shook his head and Ghost tried to ignore how her heart sank just a bit.

"Is there anything special you're doing here?" Ghost asked.

Logan shook his head. "Nothing you can help me with."

Ghost frowned. "Take me with you when you leave."

"I can't do that. You need to finish school and join the X-Men." Logan told her.

"Don't tell me what to do, Logan." Ghost told him. "I don't necessarily want to join the X-Men."

Logan looked annoyed. "I'm giving you a suggestion. I'm your friend, not your guardian."

"I want to go with you." Ghost told him. She didn't tell him how the other kids spent most of their time avoiding or ignoring her and he was the only friend she had.

"I can't take you with me, Ghost. Xavier is your guardian and he's already told me not to take you with me. He knew you'd ask and I can't defy him. I respect him too much for that." Logan told her.

"Fine." Ghost hid her hurt and went back upstairs without another word.


	2. Chapter 2: A Meeting and A Kidnapping

**Three Years Later**

Logan walked into the mansion, hoping to see Ghost waiting for him. Ever since he'd told her he wouldn't take her with him, she'd been ignoring his occasional letters and avoiding him when he'd stopped at the house. Before he could mention this to Jean, who was walking through with a group of younger students, he spotted Ghost across the room with a young man. She looked vastly different than she had three years before. She was still deathly pale with sharp gray eyes and long, wavy, tumbling white hair. The major difference was that she was taller and her thinness didn't look so unhealthy anymore. Her features were both beautiful and exotic with high cheekbones, full, pale pink lips, and a voluptuous build with a decent bust and long legs. She hadn't noticed him, so it was easy to watch her interact with the youth she was with. She was smiling shyly and brushing some of her hair out of her face. When the young man took over brushing the hair back over her ear, fury built in him for some strange reason.

After a few minutes of hushed conversation, Ghost looked over at him and seemed to freeze, her eyes flashing an emotion he didn't recognize. Then, before his eyes, she vanished in a puff of whitish-gray smoke. The young man she'd been talking to looked over and Logan was annoyed to see that he had a golden boy image of blonde hair, blue eye, and a nice tan. The golden boy walked over to him and offered a hand.

"Hi. My name is Aaron. Most people call me Knightlight though." the boy grinned.

"Logan." he shook the kid's hand. "How do you know Ghost?"

Aaron looked a little nervous at that. "We've been dating for a little over a month."

Pure, hot, rage enveloped Logan and he had to fight not to let his claws out. "I see. And where did she teleport to?"

"Probably her room. She stays in there a lot now that she's graduated." Aaron shrugged.

Logan frowned. "Thanks." He walked up the stairs to Ghost's bedroom and opened the door. "I see you've been doing well."

Ghost jumped and turned around from where she was sitting at a computer. "What are you doing here, Logan?"

"I thought I'd come say hi. You've been avoiding me for three years." Logan looked around slowly and saw that the room was still as barren as it had been five years earlier when it was first assigned to her. The only things that were new were the desk, computer, and chair that were occupied by the nineteen year old.

"Maybe I had a reason for avoiding you. Did you think of that?" Ghost demanded.

Logan frowned. "You can't still be mad at me for not letting you come with me."

"Well, I am. It's not going so well for me here. It never has." Ghost looked both annoyed and sad. "I wanted to come with you because I wanted to be with someone who wasn't going to judge me."

"Who's judging you? You're supposed to be safe from that kind of stuff here." anger boiled in his gut at the thought of anyone hurting the sweet girl in front of him.

Ghost now looked furious. "Everyone, Logan! I'm too different from them. None of them speak to me except for Aaron and he's a creep who thinks I like him and that we're dating."

"I don't see how you can be too different from a group of people that have a lot of the same problems as you." Logan told her.

Ghost sighed. "It doesn't matter. You wouldn't understand."

"Why don't you try me?" Logan asked. "It might turn out different than what you think."

Ghost stared at him for a long time. "My powers are too strange. Even Rogue, who can't touch people is better received than someone who can disappear like myself. They keep thinking I turn myself invisible to listen in on their conversations and more than once someone has called me into the professor's office saying I used my powers against them. The professor believes me because he knows I can't use my powers in the way they say without killing them, but it's rough."

"Why didn't you try telling me this before?" Logan softened, his temper gone at the look of utter defeat in Ghost's eyes.

"What would you have done?" Ghost asked. "You turned down the only way you could help me." She didn't give him a chance to answer before she faded from view and the chair spun, showing that it's occupant was gone.

XxXxX

After Ghost turned invisible and ran from the room, she wondered what she was going to do. It probably wasn't the most mature thing in the world, but she wanted to stay away from Logan. Halfway down the stairs, she realized what to do and teleported into Xavier's office.

"You can become visible again, Ghost." Xavier stated after several long moments.

"How did you know?" Ghost asked, slowly reappearing.

Xavier smiled. "Similar to another teleporter, Nightcrawler, smoke does appear when you teleport. Yours is a whitish-gray, but it is still visible. Now, who are you running away from this time?"

"Logan." Ghost told him.

"That's not like you." Xavier frowned.

Ghost didn't look at him. "Did you find a way to read my mind, Professor?"

Xavier wheeled up next to her as she looked out the window. "You know very well that I cannot see into your mind, Rowanne. After five years, I like to think I know your personality a bit."

"Don't call me that." Ghost stated. "And I know this isn't like me, but we both know I can't stand confrontation and especially not with him."

"Did things come to a confrontation with him?" Xavier asked.

Ghost glanced at him. "Of course it did. I've been avoiding him for three years and he barged into my room."

Xavier nodded. "Did you tell him what's been happening here?"

"Of course I did." Ghost shrugged. "All he asked was why I didn't tell him sooner. And then I asked him what he would do?"

"And left before I could answer, if I might add." Logan walked into the room. "Next time you shouldn't run off so fast."

Ghost looked at him, wary. She wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer. "What kind of answer would you give me then? What would you have done if I told you what's been happening to me here?"

Logan's eyes were intense. "I would have taken you with me."

XxXxX

Xavier could read Logan's mind all too well, even if he couldn't read Ghost's. His affection for her was starting to change from friendly to something much less platonic. He knew Ghost had lost her more friendly emotions toward Logan and had developed what he felt was more than the crush she would admit to.

"Ghost, would you give me some time alone with Logan? Come back in about ten minutes." he interrupted what looked like a staring contest.

"Of course." Ghost nodded and vanished with a puff of smoke.

Xavier looked at Logan. "There's something going on between the two of you that I don't necessarily think is a good right now. She is still very young."

Logan frowned. "I don't understand what you mean."

"There are romantic feelings that are starting to stir inside you, whether or not you're ready to see them. I can't let you spend too much time with Ghost while she's having a hard time." Xavier told him, remembering how upset Ghost had been when she'd accidentally walked through someone when she was insubstantial and the boy had died a little while later.

"A hard time with what?" Logan asked. "I understand the problem of the others not treating her well, but what else could there possibly be?"

Xavier was surprised. "She didn't tell you why none of the others come near her anymore, other than Aaron?" Logan shook his head. "She's accidentally killed four people since she came here. The first time, she was practicing her power to turn things insubstantial without becoming completely insubstantial herself and a girl bumped into her, going through her hand. The girl's body started to change rapidly on a molecular level and died because of it. The same basic thing has happened three other times. It has become so difficult for her to be around people and she is not emotionally stable. It is rare to see her out of her room."

Logan frowned. "But she seemed so happy the first time I came back and saw her. She looked like she was having a good time."

"She was hiding things from you, Logan. She wants to escape her past." Xavier told him. "It's not wise for you to encourage her romantic feelings for you."

"You seem to know a lot about her, considering you can't look into her mind." Logan frowned.

"I don't need to read her mind to see the things that are bothering her. She tells me quite a bit herself." Xavier sighed. "She confides in me more often than not."

"So, you want me to leave until she's more stable?" Logan asked.

Xavier shook her head. "That's not necessary, but be careful around her. Don't act on your feelings, but rather logic. Remember that you are quite a bit older than her if that helps."

Before Logan could answer, Scott burst into the room. "Professor, Ghost's gone! Mystique just took her out of her room."

Logan glanced at Xavier before running off.


	3. Chapter 3: A Rescue and A Decision

"Let go of me!" Ghost twisted herself, trying to get out of the strange blue woman's grasp. "I don't want to hurt you."

"You're funny, kid." the woman chuckled. "But, I'm not letting you go and if you teleport, I go with you. You're coming with me to see Magneto."

Ghost fought harder to get out of the woman's grasp. A few moments later, she was shoved in a van, the blue woman climbing in after her. There was an older man with a red helmet sitting on the seat in front of her and she was on the floor of the spacious van. Before she could move to get up, the blue woman tied her hands and ankles together.

"You know I can get out of these ropes, right?" Ghost raised an eyebrow. "And I can teleport back to the mansion."

The older guy smiled at the blue woman before looking back at her. "Yes, but you won't. You want to hear what we have to say. I'm Magneto and this is Mystique."

"And?" Ghost turned herself insubstantial and the ropes slipped off of her before she turned substantial again. "What does that mean to me?"

"You're a very talented woman, Ghost. We don't think you can live up to your potential with Xavier. You aren't cut out for the soft life of an X-man. We think you should be one of us. You've already killed several people." Magneto was putting on the charm and Ghost was sure that he didn't think she could say no to it.

"What if I don't want to join you or the X-men? What if I want to live as a human and never use my powers?" Ghost asked.

"You would take back that ridiculous name your _**homo sapien**_ parents gave you?" Magneto hissed.

"I didn't say that." Ghost brought her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them. "I just don't want to hurt anyone else."

Mystique smirked. "You don't have to hurt anyone if you don't want to. You're smart enough to help out behind the scenes."

Ghost shook her head and backed up against the back of the van, still in the same position with her knees against her chest. "No. I won't join the Brotherhood." She turned insubstantial and moved out the back of the van. Before she could stabilize herself again, someone ran through her. They were warm, as she was used to, with a strange coldness at their core. Strangely, she stabilized as soon as she was out of whoever it was. She was then pushed forward by some unseen force and fell into the person she'd gone through. When she sat up, she saw it was Logan and he was somehow still alive.

"Are you alright?" Logan brushed her hair behind her ear. "They didn't hurt you, did they?"

"No. I'm fine." Ghost shook her head. "Why did you come after me?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Logan asked. "I couldn't let them take you. What did they want?"

Ghost stood up. "They wanted me to join them. How did you survive?"

Logan rose as well and looked at her curiously. "What do you mean?"

"No one I have ever gone through has survived." Ghost told him.

Logan frowned and touched her shoulder. "That's not your fault, Ghost. And I can heal from pretty much everything."

Ghost looked up at him. "It's not generally something you can heal from. When I go insubstantial, I'm essentially destabilizing the molecules that make up my body. When I go through someone when I'm in such a state, the molecules that make up their body start to destabilize as well, but where I can stabilize myself again, the person I went through can't and they die. The only thing I can't go through in an insubstantial state is adamantium. Every living thing dies and objects stabilize when I do. You shouldn't have survived, but at the same time, I don't want you to die."

"My entire skeleton is coated in adamantium." Logan told her. "That's why I didn't die. You couldn't destabilize my bone marrow."

Ghost grabbed his hand and turned her own insubstantial. She passed through it and once again felt the coldness at the core before her hand stabilized itself as soon as it was out of his, and then it was thrown back against his. "My molecules mix with yours, which causes me to solidify once more and then tries to reconnect to you. Fascinating." She looked up at him. "I wonder if I could teleport with you. I tried it with a mouse once, but the mouse died."

"You aren't teleporting with me." Logan backed up a step.

"Wanna bet?" Ghost wrapped her arms around his waist and teleported back to the mansion. It was different than usual because she could feel them spinning through space and when she reappeared in Xavier's office, she fell to the floor with Logan on top of her instead of ending up on her feet like normal. There was a worse problem with how she landed though. She had done something to damage something in her back.

"We are not doing that ever again." Logan got up.

"Agreed." Ghost tried to get up, but whimpered in pain instead. "Go get help."

XxXxX

Logan felt panic build up. "Why? What's wrong?"

"Something with the way we landed. I hurt my back." Ghost moved to get up again and cried out in pain. "Logan, get someone."

Logan brushed some of her hair out of her face. "Don't worry. I'll get someone. Just don't move." He stood up again and ran out of the room. The mansion was practically empty and it felt like forever before he found Jean in the kitchen. "Thank god I found you. Ghost is hurt."

Jean's eyes went wide. "Where is she? What happened?"

"Xavier's office. She teleported with me and we ended up on the ground. It hurt her back." He ran to the room with her to find Ghost looking ashen.

Jean moved in to touch her but Ghost shook her head, somewhat weakly. "Don't touch me. It's not safe."

"What do you mean?" Logan asked.

"Whenever Ghost gets seriously injured, she starts to destabilize. It stops her from feeling the pain, but makes it nearly impossible to help her." Jean moved back. "If I touch her right now, I'm putting myself at risk as well as her."

Logan looked at Ghost again, who was starting to look terrified, and came up with an idea of how to help her. "Then tell me what to do."

"Did you not hear what I said? It's not safe to touch her."

"I heard. I can touch her." Logan told her.

"Do it, Jean." Ghost's voice was weak. "I can't keep myself substantial for much longer and if I go insubstantial, I won't be able to stabilize again."

Jean sighed. "Fine. Logan feel along her spine and see if it's broken."

Logan did as she asked and found that Ghost's spine was not, in fact, broken. "No, but there's a disk that I think is cracked."

"You shouldn't be able to feel that." Jean sounded worried.

"My fingers are going through her body and touching her spine. One of the disks feels like it has a crack in it." Logan snapped.

"Logan, I can't stay stabilized much longer. Go get my cousin, Danielle. She can both touch and heal me." Ghost whispered.

"I can call her mentally." Jean said. "Just do your best to stay stable, Ghost."

Logan had no idea of what to do. "How long can you hold on?"

"Maybe ten minutes, but no longer." Ghost's voice was starting to break.

Logan didn't know what to say after that, so he just sat in silence with her until a little girl with long blond hair and gold eyes ran in and knelt down next to Ghost. "You need to be more careful, stupid." the little girl told Ghost before touching her. Her hands glowed gold and within seconds, Ghost started to look better. "Don't teleport with him again. You'll always land the same way because of how heavy his adamantium skeleton is."

"No problem." Ghost muttered. "Thanks, Danielle."

"It's fine." Danielle stood up. "You'll be fine, but you'll definitely be sore for a little while. Try to keep the experimentation to a limit."

Ghost nodded as Logan helped her up. "How long am I going to feel like shit?"

"She's ten, don't cuss around her." Jean's voice was stern.

"Just for a day or so." Danielle told her. "Be careful for the next week or so or you might get hurt again."

Ghost hugged her. "Thank you."

Danielle hugged her back, tears in her strange gold eyes. "No. Thank you. You got me away from my dad."

"And you helped get me away from my mother." Ghost whispered before they separated

Logan waited until Danielle left to go back to class and Jean left to go get those who had gone off to find Ghost before talking to her. "I didn't know you had family here."

"It's recent. She sent me a letter when she first realized she was a mutant too. I knew what my uncle would do if he found out and I was lucky enough to be able to get her out of there right when he found out. He's like my mother. He tried to kill her and with Bobby's help, I was able to teleport her out of there." Ghost explained.

"How did Bobby help?" Logan asked, trying not to be jealous.

"He built a wall of ice around my uncle. I wouldn't let him freeze him." Ghost shrugged. "It made it difficult, but we managed it."

"How do you always manage to get yourself in trouble?" Logan muttered.

"I don't do it on purpose." she frowned. "It just happens. And besides, if I hadn't gone to get her, she would have died. It needed to be done."

Logan frowned. "You could have gotten hurt."

Ghost shrugged. "I could have, but I didn't. Now, I'm going to go find Storm and Scott and tell them that I got away from Magneto and Mystique." She disappeared with a puff of smoke.

Logan looked over at Jean. "She does that a lot lately."

Jean shrugged. "Everyone wants to disappear sometimes. Her more than most."

"Do you think she would benefit if I left again? I was talking to Xavier about it earlier."

Jean looked at him for a long time. "You've never spent as much time with the others as you do with her. You even send her letters. I think it's set her up for some of the kids ignoring her, since a lot of the kids really want to know you, but I don't know if she would deal with it very well if you just up and left. You need to still write letters, maybe call once in a while. But, yes. I think she would benefit a little if you left. She's been thinking about joining the X-Men so that she can be a part of something, but if you stick around, you'll always be a possible escape to her because she knows that you'll eventually be willing to take her with you."

Logan nodded. "I'll do that. Let her know I've left will you?"

"Yes. I think she'll understand." Jean nodded. He turned to leave. "Hey, Logan. I do have one question." He turned back. "Why are you so interested in making sure she's okay? You don't really spend that much time with any of the other kids."

"She seems like she needs it the most." Logan shrugged before leaving.


End file.
